Position in chronology
SAA 11 176. People and Property Plundered (ADD 0910)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Bakkâ [...] (2) of Su[...] (3) and Nan[aya-...] (4) royal bodygua[rd...] (5) Samsi-sa[gab ...] (6) Nabû-tab[ni-uṣur ...] (7) Yadi[' ...] (8) Adad-kuna[...] (9) Nabû-zeru-[...] (10) Yak[in-...]: (11) in all, 11 pe[ople ...] (12) The woman Il[...] (13) of Abu-iddina [...] (14) 30 dep[ortees...] (15) of S[u...] (Break) (r 1) 50 deportees [...] (r 2) slaves of [NN ...] (r 3) 20 minas of silver, of [...] (r 4) on the outskirt[s of the town ...]. (r 5) To the value of 10 minas of silver [...] (r 6) cloaks (assigned) to [NN ...] (r 7) son of Bel-...[...]. (r 8) To the value of 2 tale[nts of…
Source: Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1995. Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. SAA 11. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa11/P335747/
Why it matters
Transliteration
mbak*-ka-a* [x x x x x x] / ša msu-[x x x x x x x] / u mdna-na-[a—x x x x] / LÚv.qur-⸢bu⸣-[ti x x x x x] / msam-si—sa-[x x x x x x] / mdPA—tab-[ni—PAB? x x x x] / mia*-di-⸢iʾ⸣ [x x x x] / m10—ku-na*-[x x x x] / mdPA—NUMUN?—[x x x x] / mia-⸢kín?⸣-[x x x x x] / PAB 11 ERIM-⸢MEŠ⸣ [x x x x] / MÍ.il-⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x] / ša mAD—AŠ? [x x x x] / 30 ZI-[MEŠ x x x x] / ša m⸢su⸣-[x x x x] / [x] ⸢x⸣ [x x…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian administrative record (provincial or military), edited by F.M. Fales & J.N. Postgate (SAA 11, 1995). ORACC text P335747.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335747). source
Translation excerpted from Fales, F.M. & Postgate, J.N. 1995. Imperial Administrative Records, Part II: Provincial and Military Administration. SAA 11. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa11/P335747/.
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.